Have we lost interest in the real guitar heroes and is guitar music as we know it dead?
When was the last time you heard a decent guitar solo?
Before you ask is guitar music dead? ask yourself this one. For me, the closest to anything approaching something ear-catching isn’t even a solo, it’s the rhythm track to Get Lucky by Daft Punk (2013), played by legendary father of funk and Chic guitarist Nile Rodgers on his famous hitmaker strat. Before that, it has to be said, Daft Punk again, for the wig-out solo on Digitial Love (2001), which isn’t even played on a guitar! (it’s originally done on a synth and vocoder), but hey, it’s still brilliant and others have attempted it on guitar since.
So, 2013 then. That makes me sad. Anyway, check out the solo on guitar by The Royal Concept.
Great guitar music is out there, for those willing to search it out.
The counterargument, but kind of missing the point. Before the turn of the millennium, it could be argued guitar music was pop music, with the likes of Oasis and Nirvana (never a huge fan of either) perhaps being the final nail in the coffin. Guitar music used to be really great and really popular didn’t it? What the hell happened? Why did it go underground?
I suppose back in the 60’s and 70’s, the composition of music was limited to the technology at hand. Everything was still analogue, so the guitar was more of a necessity than it is now. These days? Well, you can produce a song in its entirety on a mobile phone. The fall out of this is that guitar music now has a niche, even retro feel to it when at one time it was a core component to the soundtrack of our lives. Is this why tribute bands are so popular? Will there ever be tribute bands for post-year-2000 music?
So, yeah, great original guitar music is still out there, it’s just, unfortunately for everyone, a lot rarer than it used to be.
Guitar music is dead because there’s no quality control anymore.
Before the internet, YouTube and streaming, to get heard you either needed to build your reputation by playing live gigs in front of real people or convince someone outside of your peers you were good enough for a record deal. More often than not, those that were good enough made it, those that weren’t didn’t. Nowadays all you need is a phone and a little confidence, but crucially, not necessarily any real, game-changing talent. Result? A deluge of sub-bar wannabees, buskers, and copycats with egos far outweighing any musical skill or god-given assets. I think maybe we’ve been turned off, over-saturated and so worn out with mediocre to mid-level efforts that when somebody really great comes along, they’re drowned out in all the noise.
The Instagram-fed millennials want a quick fix, a one-minute TikTok burst of noise, hardly enough for one-verse and one chorus, nevermind the multi-layered intricacies of a concept album to explore and to cherish. No. Part of me is resigned, we’ll never hear the likes of Pink Floyd’s The Wall again.
John Mayer and the new breed of guitar hero.
… are not exactly pushing boundaries, are they? All fantastic players, but the likes of John, Joe Bonamassa, and Chris Buck really aren’t the next Eddie Van Halen by a long way. John Mayer, in particular, has made it into the mainstream as a blues guitarist without producing anything new or exciting, and, although maybe it’s the green-eyed monster speaking here, there’s something else missing…
For starters, I know of John Mayer, as we all have, but I couldn’t name you a single John Mayer song or remember a single John Mayer solo or riff. So that instantly puts him out of my list of real guitar heroes. Secondly, where’s the humility? John Mayer is a self-confessed ego-addict. I watched him induct Albert King into the Hall of fame and it was excruciating, but hey, that’s my opinion so make your own mind up.
Simply put, the Steve Vai’s and Guthrie Govan’s of this world are humble, genuinely nice guys, whose services to the guitar-playing world have earned them god-like status and the right to possess egos the size of a house. Could anyone say the same about John Mayer?
Maybe those comparisons are a little unfair. John Mayer is not a technique-orientated guitar god, he’s more the total package of a guitarist/singer/songwriter, a modern-day Eric Clapton if you will, but there’ll only ever be one of those. Do we really need another? Do we really need more blues?
What is the future of guitar music?
I often get myself into the rut of the same old chords and chord progressions, but taking guitar playing to the extreme, what else is there? Fretted notes, hammer-ons, pull-offs, bends, tapping, vibrato, etc., etc. Can we get new, exciting sounds out of the instrument, or has it reached its end-of-life and we’re left with regurgitating blues music?
The late great Les Paul himself famously said:
A guitar is something you can hold and love and it’s never going to bug you. But here’s the secret about the guitar – it’s defiant. It will never let you conquer it. The more you get involved with it, the more you realize how little you know.
Les Paul
This suggests there’s always something new to discover on the guitar, but the problem is, if indeed anyone does conjure up something fresh, as I said earlier, it gets lost in the noise. But I think there’s hope. I’m fairly sure we haven’t simply missed another Van Halen or Jimi Hendrix moment as I don’t believe any amount of social media-driven drivel has the power to drown out something truly spectacular, something that can only come from somebody in love and inspired by the guitar. To me, it seems a lot more likely that we just haven’t had anything for a while.
Guitar music is NOT dead.
I could never be labelled an optimist, but taking everything into account, I don’t believe guitar music is dead and, at some point, it will rise again, It just hasn’t happened yet. I find it impossible to believe that we’ll never have another Stairway to Heaven moment, or that some young upstart rips up the rulebook and inspires a generation.
It’s happened before and it can happen again, but it won’t be someone playing the blues.
When was the last time you heard decent guitar music? Do you think guitar music is dead?
Drop me a comment below.
Bands like that ARE NOT thriving. They are usually driving around pulling U-Haul trailers and sleeping in their cars half the time. Maybe you THINK they are thriving, but not to my idea of what thriving entails. They are not making much money either because the internet destroyed the ability for musicians to sell their music. That’s why concert tickets now cost a fortune for nose bleed seats. It’s the only way musicians can make money. I have a good paying teaching gig and it beats the hell out of 2am breakdowns and shitty pay for a lifetime of dedication.
Those are very niche bands. They don’t trouble the charts. They’re pretty obscure.
So, proves this author’s “lost in mediocrity” theory.
Thanks for reading and commenting. Welcome to the blog. I’m as un-cool and un-trendy as they come, but the point I’d like to make is, guitar bands, regardless of whether you like them or not, were household names, once. I must admit I’ve never heard of any of the bands you mention. That’s doesn’t make them bad, but I think it does mean that they haven’t produced anything to make Joe public sit up and listen ether.
All you have to do to answer this question, is look at the popularity of bands like Polyphia, Chon, Unprocessed, and Animals as Leaders. Period. It is ridiculous to even have an article like this when bands like them are not only thriving but pushing past conventional uses of this instrument and music theory as a whole.
All you have to do to answer this question, is look at the popularity of bands like Polyphia, Chon, Unprocessed, and Animals as Leaders. Period. It is ridiculous to even have an article like this when bands like them are not only thriving, but pushing past conventional uses of this instrument and music theory as a whole.
It is not just guitar, and as an eighties shredder in college, I was warned chances of a music career were near nil for anyone, even the talented. Now digital convergence replaces the live musician. Electronic sounds enthrall with precision, and AI creates the composition. The demise of religion, where the young were trained to sing, maybe even to read. Lack of music in secular education. Music still connects with our ancient, genetic need for communication and understanding at a magical level – but the language is much simpler now. An ornate guitar solo is lost. We are left with a Weeknd rhapsody.
I believe guitar based music is still pretty popular, more so around the World then in the US. I noticed this some 15 years ago when I moved to the US, and that has not changed. There used to be a battle of the bands back home that had upwards of 20 bands competing for airtime every weekend. In the US you are forced to list to what the record labels want you to hear, and in most cases it is the pop artists, that end up filling up stadiums and making them more money. It seemed like guitar music was already a niche even back then.
The days of the 2-3 minute solos were over long ago, so don’t think those will ever come back. This is the TikTok generation after all and there is not enough time in this type of media to garner attention with the guitar.
What is still prevalent are the hard hitting riffs heard in metal, I notice I listen to more prog metal and djent bands these days, and these types of bands seem to come form places like India with Skyharbor or Ausie – Chaos Divine. But granted these are more niche in guitar based music to begin with.
Thanks for reading and glad you enjoyed the article. Here’s hoping!
Thanks for the great article and great thoughts. I think the time will come when everything will be reset globally. There will come a time of love, joy and freedom. And this will be reflected in everything, even in music, because the whole paradigm of the world will change. George, Czech Republic.
Hi Rob.
Great point. Was never a huge fan of Hendrix but that doesn’t matter as without him we’d be nowhere.
I appreciate your POV. And that’s already happened..what do you think rock and roll was?
I think music, any kind, is for everyone. But what I don’t like is when people don’t give credit where credit is due..
That’s why as much as I love Led Zeppelin..I respect The Rolling Stones more…
I tend think most things have their time on top..and then they are gone. They get replaced. Big band had its time. Jazz also and rock and roll..
And when I hear about guitar music these days .I hear about guitar instrumental albums..and I don’t think those will go mainstream…
Blues rock is probably the best chance..
I guess it depends on the genre or type of guitar music. But in general Guitar music has definitely lost its place in the world of music.
Blues. Psshh. I think any white dude playing blues, or running a funk/reggae/blues band with all white dudes (which is very common in Seattle, near where I am) is committing cultural appropriation. It’s a little less annoying when white women play blues music, which seems to be a bit more common lately, but I see it as appropriation in general. Blues is one of the few forms of music I really won’t touch. I love and play all kinds of music on multiple instruments with guitar being my showcase instrument, but if I ever ran a band instead of doing everything myself I’m hiring people of color.
I think there will be a turnaround or at least a re-growing commercial acceptance, but I sure as f*ck hope it’s not inhabited by white dudes playing other peoples’ art like they have throughout the musical history of this country. I like John Mayer, and I think he’s more technically skilled than you give him credit for, but he does it too. Mayer and Joe Boner and the rest see the blues as a viable commercial track, but I think what they do is fundamentally wrong. Stevie Ray spent his career sounding like black people. Using ONE SCALE. PoC are marginalized in the music biz and I’m sick of it.
With more and more musicians producing, promoting and selling their music online and performing in local venues. The Guitar is very much alive especially among female musicians. I don’t what kind of music your listening to you claim you haven’t heard a good solo in forever but ya need to climb out from whatever rock your livin under. 🤘✌😎
Hi Frank. Thanks for reading. You’re right, I’ve always lived under a rock as far as exposure to new music is concerned, but that’s kind of my point, great new guitar music used to reach even the likes of me 😁
I’m doubtful about guitar music becoming a dominant force in mainstream music again..
Instead, I think it will have its place. Even be a popular niche with lots of fans..
But probably not a cultural force..just like I don’t expect punk to reemerge beyond a niche status..
Hi Robert. Thanks for stopping by. Any particular reason why you think guitar music won’t make it into mainstream music?